Matt bounded up the ramp to the DS13 lounge. In one hand was his overnight bag, a common sight during these trips, but in the other was a metal cylinder about the size of a travel mug. He headed for the table, her table, where he knew she would be. And sure as the sun rising in the east, she was there. Sometimes he took the consistency of her presence here for granted, but he suspected that was even more so for the people who worked here every day. No matter what, they could always count on Katriel being right here to help.
They exchanged a hug and kiss, as they normally did at their reunions. But before he sat down, Matt held out the cylinder between them. Katriel stared at it. They had talked on the comm a few days before, when he discovered the bulb was still alive.
Over a year and a half ago, Matt had departed on a several month mission that was comms dark. It had been, and he hoped would forever be, their longest time apart. Before he left, though, they had each taken a half of an Eropi bulb. The plant, native to Gonal IV, only grew when two halves of a bulb were brought together. The plant produced seeds in the form of half bulbs that would then disperse in the wild. Coming in contact with another bulb, they would grow together and form a new plant. It was a unique means of ensuring genetic diversity for the lifeform.
In geologically recent times, sentients on Gonal IV had taken to using the bulb as a means for loved ones far apart to remember one another. The tradition would go that two loved ones would each take a half of a bulb, which would stay dormant while they were apart. When reunited, they would bring the bulbs together, and the plant would grow, a symbol of the regrowth of love between the two beings, now together again.
Before he left, Matt had given half a bulb to Katriel, and kept a half of a bulb for himself. But during the multi-month mission the ship he’d been travelling on, the USS Okoboji, had been severely damaged. Although recovered, most crew compartments did not survive the mission, and several of Matt's personal possessions were lost. Including his half of the bulb.
That was until last week, when a package arrived for him at DS9 from the Antares shipyards. The Okoboji was being disassembled and scrapped out. The thought of the ship that was his home going through such was painful enough. It was worse to consider that he hadn't been able to return to his quarters on the ship since the mission. But the package from the shipyards was a welcome surprise. Crews had finally accessed the part of the ship that his bunk was in, and as such, were able to recover several of his personal effects. Everything was important to him, but none so as much as the small eropi half-bulb that was gently packed into the small silver cylinder.
Matt removed the lid and both him and Katriel leaned over and looked in. The bulb sat intact on top of some white tissue that added cushioning against the hard sides of the cylinder. It looked excessively dry, and one end of the brown bulb seemed to be slightly burned. Fire or freezer burn from the vacuum of space? He wasn't sure which, but it looked rough.
It was unlikely she had read his mind, but she certainly said what he was thinking. "Will it still grow if we combine them?"
"I'm... not sure?" he replied. "But I think we should try!"
- - - - -
Nearly a year later, Matt sat in his quarters, looking at the two foot tall.... bush, jutting out from the wrapped burlap sack that held its bundle of roots and dirt. He honestly didn't think they would take, but it had. Slower than what he read on the holonet, but the two bulbs did grow into each other. Eventually they sprouted small roots, and then a stem of the main plant.
The couple had placed the two, now one, into a small planter, packed with the iron rich dirt native to the plant’s home. And so it went, the plant grew. Matt kept it mostly, it required little additional nutrients, but a lot of water. At times, Katriel had kept it too. It blended into the well-kept, but welcoming feel, of her quarters on DS13. Here, in his tight one-person bunk-room on the USS Osprey, the plant looked too big, and out of place, the only alive green in a sea of metallic grey and drab brown.
But soon that wouldn't be the case. As was the tradition, the plant was usually returned to its native home to be replanted and grow. Matt picked the plant up by its sturdy stem and gently packaged it into a second overnight bag, setting it next to his normal one by the door.
Soon he would be heading for another meetup with Katriel. They had decided it was time to take the plant back to its home world, and place it in its natural soil to grow to its true potential.
He only now realized and appreciated the parallels. The symbolism of the two bulbs becoming one. The journey away from their homes, just to find another so similar to itself, yet different. To grow into one, and return home and grow to a potential neither individual could ever fathom. Matt wondered if the originators of this tradition had known this before they started it.
He smiled, thinking of both the long-term growth and future he had with Katriel. The years ahead of them, together. But also the immediate enjoyment there was in planning for not the next decade, or next year, but for the instant fun of this weekend. The now.
He let slip a crooked smile, looking down at the shrub again. "That's one hell of a bulb!"